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HS help!

A

Ansarie

Member
I am having a hard time fitting the HS skin to the underlying skeleton. I called Vans today and the Rep. said to trim some of the material from the front of the ribs. Also, he said, he can?t remember anyone having a problem with this; that builders may have been trimming the front of the ribs without calling us.

I just got the kit in December and I tried the wooden cradle and duct-tapping the skin edges to fit the contours of the ribs; none successful so far.

If you are done with the HS, did you have a problem fitting the Skin to front Ribs (HS-706 and HS-707) and how did you do it?

Many thanks!

Ansarie.
 
i remember it being a VERY tight fit, but it worked out. i would get the skin roughly in position, then use a cleco to "pull" the skin into position over the rib hole by inserting the cleco in the skin hole, and angling it to reach the hole in the rib, then straightening. once you have one in place, the rest are easy. i didn't do any trimming of the nose ribs to get it to fit. i did not use the cradle to fit it. try laying the structure and skin on the workbench.

hope this helps! :)
 
Ansarie said:
did you have a problem fitting the Skin to front Ribs (HS-706 and HS-707)...
Click to expand...
Yes, it was tough.
Ansarie said:
...and how did you do it?
Click to expand...
Patience, and lots of it.

I remember this being a tough job, but I do not recall trimming anything (I could be wrong). Make sure the flanges of the ribs are 90-degrees to the web and consider have a second person on hand to help. It's tight, but it can be done.

Good luck!
 
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I didn't trim anything off, but I did round the front of the ribs a bit so they wouldn't gouge as much. Also, I found putting the pieces in one at a time and clecoing in place is WAY easier than trying to make the whole skeleton fit.
 
You can use an awl, preferably with a blunted/rounded tip, to GENTLY-------I repete, GENTLY pry things into place, then cleco cleco cleco.

Mike
 
I had a bad skin

When I built my HS the first skin went on with very little effort. The second side gave me fits. I was able to get the clecos in the top(or bottom-I forget) but absolutely couldn't get them in the second side. I removed the skin, folded it on the factory bend until the trailing edges touched and found them to be 1/4" off! Being as the two skins are supposed to be interchangable I surmised that the one skin had slipped in the press brake at the factory and was bent 1/8" off the center line. Vans replaced it - no questions or problems. They said it was unusual but that it could happen. The replacement skin went on with very little effort. Check out your trailing edge match-up before you fight with it too much. Also, I didn't have to trim any ribs-just a good deburring on the tip flanges.

--hawk
RV-7A
N728E reserved
 
The ribs dig into the skin since it is a tight fit. put a little tension on the skin to open it up so that you get full insertion of the ribs as far forward as required. Then, start clecoing one hole at at time till you have a cleco in every hole on one side, then flip.
What looks bad at first, will snap into alignment once you have a bunch of clecos in place. Pick a spot, and work out from there.

Alton
Emp complete
Wings due 2 Jan.
 
More help....

Many thanks for the responses. I use the wesites listed in the replies all the time. However, I need more help...

Alton, applying tension to skin seems plausible, how do you do it. I put inside the skin a padded dowel and pressed forward, it was close, but no cigar.

I have tried to put the skeleton piece by piece inside the skin and applied pressure from the inside. The piece-by-piece did not work for me, further it will not work after you prime and rivet the skeleton together!

Also, I tried to ?Gently Pry? things into place, but aluminum too soft for coursing!

I tried the table top method also. I had my son open-up the skin as far as possible, but did ask him for a ?bit? more as I was afraid we would damage the skin.

Remember that end rib HS-706 is one piece that must fit inside the skin before you can clico any holes, it?s all or nothing! If you put it a skew, you can cleco the back two holes (top and bottom) but you will have the same problem; you must have fit it in before you can put in another cleco!

Again, many thanks to all who replied, more help please

Ansarie.
 
stupid question -- did you flute those ribs properly? What exactly is the problem? Holes not lining up?
 
Yes, the holes will not line-up, bout 1/4 in off after an hour of trying!

The ribs needed little fluting as they were almost straight. I did make sure the flanges are perpendicular to the webs, also.

Do I need to flute like crazy as it might shorten the ribs and have a better fit?
 
"flute as required" is best we can say (I guess each rib will require a different amount). but it does sound like it wasn't fluted enough etc..

ps.. flute until the rivet line lines up with the holes in the skin.. all other indicators don't mean much.
 
This may seem obvious, but I think the forward most holes on HS707 are not prepunched and need to be match-drilled with the skins (I can't remember if this is true for HS706...). Are the correct holes lining up..? Mine were tough as well but they fit without any major problems.
 
Skin bent OK?

See my previous post ref the factory bend. Stand the skin on your bench without the skeleton with the leading edge down and press the top and bottom sides together with your hands until the trailing edges touch. Do the edges meet up? If there's an overlap of 1/4" or so you'll play heck getting the clecoes in on the short side and you should contact Vans and let them know that ANOTHER mis-bent skin got pass the QA department. These kits are great but the parts are produced by humans and goofs do occasionally occur.

--hawk
 
Got one HS skin on!

Well, I had to wait until after work yesterday to try some of the suggestion in the replies. I fiddled with left HS for a while, got frustrated and put it aside. Took a break, then I tried the Right side and it worked. It was a very tight fit and I put a few gouges on the skin at the rib tips.

Having someone to help is great. This is how I did it. I had a helper hold the skin with the leading edge on the table and the ends in the air pried open. I put one clico at the back then pushing the rib against the skin to making it conform to the rib. After a few gouges and more clicos on-forward until one side was done, then to the other. :)

I think I found a way, thanks to all the suggestions. I used all of them.

I will buff all the skin gouges when the whole thing is disassembled.

BUT, after match-drilling all the holes, deburring, dimpling, priming, and at assembly again before riveting, how do you stop the rib leading edge from gouging the inside skin again?
 
It goes together LOTS easier after everything is match drilled and dimpled - you'll be (pleasantly) surprised.

Thomas
-8 wings
 
"BUT, after match-drilling all the holes, deburring, dimpling, priming, and at assembly again before riveting, how do you stop the rib leading edge from gouging the inside skin again?
"

Prime it, get over it. Done.
 
Get over it?

?Get over it? may work for some, but does not work for me! :)

According to Van?s ALL gouges MUST be buffed to eliminate or reduce stress risers, and I think they know best. The HS skin is a structural member as far as I can tell!

Someone out there managed to NOT gouge the inside HS skin at the rib tips at final assembly - before riveting, right?

There must be some kind of thin material (a sheet or something) that can be used to protect the surface, and then pulled-out somehow! Further, there maybe even better ways that I am not aware of, thus, this post! :rolleyes:
 
Really - try it out - after you drill and dimple everything, check the fit before priming. I think you'll find it goes together much easier with little (if any) scratching.
Some primers are tougher than others - AKZO is almost impossible to scratch :D (waiting for flames and thread creep! :eek: )

Thomas
-8 wings
 
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